Halloween SFX Makeup: Exposed Eyeball

Sorry for the uber long silence...but aaammm baaaack!!

Here have a Halloween tutorial video to make up for my neglect of you guys. I will be uploading the behind the scenes creation of this which will include products and how I created the piece soooo hit that follower button and stay tuned to my blog!

xRx

Walking Dead Style Zombie Prosthetic

Hi Guys,

Its been a while hasn't it...lately I just seem to be all over the place and I will admit, I have been neglecting my blogs and YouTube and all of that lovely social goodness that keeps me connected to you guys.
Today's blog is all about a new prosthetic piece that I've created, using some of my new toys which I will be writing a review on all of them individually in more detail.
I've also been toying with the idea of doing some hair blogs/videos as I have had a few people comment about wanting to learn how I do my hair so that's something to look forward to!

So on with the zombie goodness!

As usually I start off with my clay and my Ken Banks tools. For this sculpt I used my new Monster Clay which I got from +PS Composites Ltd when I went to +United Makeup Artist Expo this year.

The clay has consistency similar to that of hard plasticine but was easier to sculpt then my other clays and I found myself able to add a lot more detail into this sculpt then any other prosthetic piece I have done before. Definite thumbs up for this clay!

With this Zombie, I was looking at working on my skills in adding texture to the skin as well as taking a more walking dead style vibe. As you can see I was testing out moulding the teeth rather then putting in my resin teeth. I didn't like it. I think it was the shape of the mouth that just didn't sit well anatomically...felt a bit cheesy B Movie zombie rather then Walking Dead Zombie.

The first initial sculpt went well but when I sat back and took another look the next day, I decide that there were certain aspect that didn't work (such as the mouth as mentioned before.)

So keeping with the first sculpt as the "base" I built up. Am always telling my students that test runs and taking time to perfect a character is a must; that time you take to really sit back and study what you just create will enable to you self assess. Self assessing is always good because it means your taking ownership of your work and building your skills based on you instinct of what works and work you see as needing practice or reshaping or whatever.

 

This is the "rebuild" sculpt. As you can see there are plenty of changes from the original.

The mouth is a little more atomically correct with a better shape for the face, I feel anyways. I had to keep referring back to medical books for the shape and placement of the teeth.

 

More texture was added to the skin with deeper wrinkles and lines to add a bit more of a rotted, aged zombie look. This zombie was not fresh!!

I really went deep with some of those lines as I wanted to make sure there was enough detail to work with on the final piece.
The eye bags were a little difficult for me as I tried to sculpt them stronger and then they went too strong and then they disappeared sooooo this is what I finally ended up with.

In the next blog I will be focusing on the colouring of the piece, for some weird reason I forgot to take a photo of the piece after I casted but as you can see from the below setup...it came out pretty well. The plaster am using at the moment is a bit rubbish but it still didn't ruin any of the detail work I laid down.

Please stay tuned for the next blog, as you can see I will also be reviewing the Sigma FX brush set and Skin Illustrator palettes, pictured above with my prosthetic.

Bye for now Lovelies!

xRx

District 9 "Prawn" Alien Special Effects Makeup Video

Halloween Nightmares at Blackburn Youth Zone...SFX, gore and monsters oh my!

Hello all,

Its been another busy week of prosthetics and SFX gore gore fun! Which I will be creating posts for very very soon. This week has literally been a router of teaching, reading, practicing, creating...which is my sort of work week! As a makeup artist it can be hard balancing all the work that needs to be completed as well as all the practising/trial runs but if the passion for the artistry is there then it makes it all worth while.

Last blog I talked about the casting and creating of the creeps, monsters and zombies used in the big Halloween project at Blackburn Youth Zone's live haunted house/ scare run event; now am going to share the application as well as the end result. I loved doing this project and hope to do many many more in future; seeing my designs come to life and run around scaring the crap out everyone...including me!...was amazing.
For the event I brought backup in the form of my fabulous media makeup students from Blackburn College (VRQ Media Makeup) This event was a chance for the students to experience working in the industry, my aim was to treat them as assisting makeup artists rather then as my students. All of them rose to the challenge, threw themselves into it and come out with big smiles on their faces from seeing what they helped achieve.

The first characters that we began applying makeup to were those playing the Scientists. The whole idea with the Haunted House/Scare Run turned into a storyline about Mad Scientists creating monsters and zombies so the "Grave Digger" characters turned into the Scientists.

The fabulous Katie and Lydia completed this makeup on one of the scientist characters, the design brief was to create a crazy mad person whose been up for days working on experiments.

 

I think you would agree the brief was met!

We created this look by using cream based foundations to create the illusion of ageing around the mouth, forehead, brows as well as contour her face shape to look a little more gaunt. Around the eyes we wanted to over exaggerate the redness and veins as these characters were performing under bright flashing lights as well as coloured spots. The eyes were the focus so they needed to be brought out.

Products used for this was Ben Nye's Master Bruise wheel and Master Death Wheel.

 

One of my favourite and biggest prosthetics of the night was the full face zombie. This prosthetics took ages to create and I had a specific look in mind for it. I wanted the character to look like he had torn his face off and all that was left was rotting muscle, bones and tissue.

Here Kate is working on apply the blood around the sides of the piece and applying around the eyes after it had been blended out using the silicone based product, Sculpt Gel.

 

Another one of my favourite prosthetics, well two, the torn mouth piece and the zombie brow. This did have to be tailored in a little as our model had a much smaller face in comparison to the original model. But that's the life of a SFX artist, working on the fly and get it done!

Here myself and Rhianna are working on blending those edges out and lining up the features so its a smooth seamless transition between the models skin and both prosthetics.

 

 

 Kate and myself found the jaw prosthetics a little trickier to attach in comparison to the other prosthetics, this was mainly because of the weight. It weighed a little more then is should of so, any, a little cutting was required to remove some of the bulk from inside the prosthetic. The adhesive that I used to attach all the pieces was MouldLife's Aqua Fix. I have used this for almost all my prosthetic creations as I find its the best, it also doesn't irritate the skin as others in the past have. Other bonus is that its a cheaper adhesive but still works well!

 

Selfies...a must for any Zombie creation!

Myself with my fabulous assistants Shannon and Rhianna with the most happiest and cheerful zombie I ever did meet.

 

 

So here are my two zombie characters all done up, they wore boiler suits which we covered in blood! Have to admit two of my favourite SFX Zombie characters, completely inspired by the Walking Dead!

So happy that my view came to life!

I think if I did it again, I would definitely change the positioning of the teeth on the girl Zombie, they totally look out of line and goofy!

 

 But you live you learn and that's how you grow!

 

 These two scared me!

They were the Chaser characters, and they ran after the people walking around the place. So its kind of fitting that they were utterly terrifying. One of the reasons behind this was that they chased after you with chainsaws, and these were real chainsaws with the chains removed so the noise that they made was UNREAL!

There were a few issues with one of the pieces not sticking to the actor, which resulted in use applying and reapply frequently.

 

Loved how they turned out.

My students haven't even completed there Media Makeup SFX unit yet and I think they did a super job at helping me bring my designs to life.

 

 Broken Jaw Zombie came out pretty damn well in the end, it was tricky due to the weight of the prosthetic piece but we sorted it out with a few little alterations. I think I want to play around with the attachment of this prosthetic further in the future. I want to redesign this one, so watch out for Broken Jaw Zombie 2.

 

This was one of the Crazy Crrrrrraaaazzzzy Scientists, the sharp teeth prosthetics piece worked really well even if it was originally meant to be one of the Minion characters.The mouth needs a dark black to disguise those lips but it came out pretty well!

 

All characters were done using Bdellium tools brushes, SFX range created by Thomas Surprenant who is an amazing effects artist, I had the pleasure to watch him create some fantastic characters at IMATS last year.

 

Like always we managed to get our self in the newspaper with the characters. This is the photo that they used which also included the "Exorcist" character in the middle, she was a blasted to know.

 

All in all I think it was a pretty successful night for both me, my students and Blackburn Youth Zone. The event brought a lot of people in and raised a lot of money for the Youth Zone, which I was glad to be apart of.

 

If you want to see more images from the night check out my facebook page @Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA and don't forget to like and follow me.

 

Also check out my Instagram @ruthemouldenmua

 

I'll be attending Manchester Vintage fair tomorrow with my popup salon, often some fabulous pampering treatments including manicure, gel nail polish as well as makeovers and hairstyling. Check out my Facebook page for more details on the event!

My first Silicone prosthetics and silicone mould making!! Yay!

Silicone has been one of those prosthetics materials that I have been dying to try out, as you all know from previous posts I am saving up for a sfx prosthetics course but I'm determined to continue to experiment and challenge myself further in preparation.

The reason why am so interested in silicon is because its a material which closely mimics skin, if the prosthetic is created properly. Out of all the prosthetic materials (that I know of) its is the most realistic for skin's translucency and therefore is used often to create skin effects, casualty effects, ageing etc.


When I went to IMATS this year I was focused on purchasing the products, equipment for creating silicone prosthetic pieces; not massive full face piece just small casualty style pieces, start small and work up. I was delighted when I found Form X's booth, they had put together a kit for creating silicone pieces which contained everything for sculpting (minus the tools), creating the moulds and creating the pieces.


The kit contained; Mould Star parts A and B for creating the mould, Ecoflex parts A and B for creating the silicone, clay, form cap, silicone pigment tint, red flock and a ickle tub of vaseline. Everything needed  for creating a silicone prosthetic.
 

 

The first step in this endeavour is to create what ever it is you want to turn in to a prosthetic. As usual I came up with a million and one different ideas...just to test it out!

I though casualty effects would be the best effect to create to test out the realism of the product as well as help me improve my realism with these sort of effects, it also allows me to play with my Skin Illustrator palettes.

 

So here are the two sculpts for the moulds, I made a cut (above) and torn skin (below) effect. Pretty basic but remember this is the first time I've ever done this so I wanted to build up my skills first.

 

The next step is to prepare the Mould Star which will be used to create the moulds. Its important to measure equal parts of A and B in order to ensure that the moulds set properly. This can be done on weighing scales (make sure you reset the weight when you put your container on the scales) or use measuring cups, which is what I did.

 

 

Make sure that you create a barrier around your sculptures, this needs to be pretty secure to make sure the Mould Star doesn't run out. I used card board and strong tape which I attached to my tile board.

What you need to remember at this stage is that to avoid air bubbles you need to pour the mixture from a height, obviously take care not to pour it all over the place!!

 

I'd say it took about 45 minutes for the mould to harden fully and was pretty easy to release from the sculpture without any problems.

 

The mould is very sturdy and flexible, it also appears to have done a good job capturing the detailing in the sculptures without any problems. Even the tiny areas are detailed.

These next few steps were pretty tricky to get right, and it took a few go's to find the right methods and measurements.

 

The products need to again be measured in equal parts using the same methods as outlined above. More Ecoflex can be purchased from Smooth On or Bentley Advance Materials however other prosthetic suppliers do have their own similar branded products e.g. PS Composite Ltd. If your experimenting for the first time you will definitely need to top up on products, the brands mentions are ace plus they don't mind you asking questions if your unsure!
 

Once you've got the 2 parts equally mixed added a little red flocking and skin tone pigment. These two components create the translucent skin tones, the multi tonal effects. The problem with this step is its all trial and error, there is not an exact measurement to follow. I took a few tries to get this right and it changes with each batch you make. So my advice is ... don't get frustrated if you don't add the right amount and it comes out too dark or too light!! Start small until your used to the measurements and mixtures.

 

 
To prepare the moulds you need to make sure you have properly ensured that the prosthetic piece can be easily released from the mould. Add Vaseline to the mould followed by spraying several layers of "FormCap" plastic (used to create bald caps) mixed with acetone to thin the mixture using an airbrush gun or paint the layers manually. This step is very very important to do right, if you don't you will never be able to release piece from the mould ending up with rips all over the shop!

 

To make it easy for yourself in both application and releasing attach a thin card board frame around the prosthetic, this will give the piece a little structure and help you when it comes to applying/blending the thin edges.

 

 

As you can see, I made quiet a few attempts at getting the silicone piece just right!

I either made the piece too thick or didn't put enough product for releasing or the pigment was all wrong!! Eventually I did it though, I finally got a batch right!

 

The application process is quiet simple, you just need to take your time and be care with the blending process. In this application I used a piece that was slightly too thick in areas around the edge, the thinner the edge the easy the blending is.

I used Pros-Aide as my adhesive just cause its my go to in most instances, once you have positioned and glued the piece (frame and all) in place you can begin to blend the edge. Use some isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud to melt the edges away, in the process melt the frame off the piece as well. Once you've done this you can seal the edges with Pros Aide, dry and powder with translucent powder.

Now, ready for painting, I used my fabulous Skin Illustrator palette from PS Composites. The FX palette has some good colours but the basic one will also do.

 

 

You first aim when painting the piece is to get the skin layers just right, especially the colours of the fat and tissue layers of the dermis. Its important to make sure you understand the real colours, which means a bit of medical research is necessary when doing SFX, if your squeamish its not a good area go into!

 

Once the colours are just right, you can continue with the blood. I got some bloods and wound fillers from Bloody Marvellous who were at IMATS this year. 

 

 

As you can see the bloods are very realistic with good texture. I love those product and I can't wait to use the other bloods in future projects!

 

I even had a bit of fun after with stiches just to test out just how realistic silicone is to skin. The stiches went through so easily and the movement that was created was very close how skin would react. There is a video clip up on my instragram, if you want to have a look and am sure at some point I will be putting up the full video on youtube.

 

I have to say silicone is an incredible material to use, the way it feels and moves works very well for recreating sfx. Although it is difficult to use at first, practice defiantly makes perfect. I would like to continue practicing with these products and perhaps make a larger piece for the face.

 

Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out my other social sites;

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RuthMouldenMUA

 

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA

 

Tumblr: http://ruthmua.tumblr.com/
 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RM_Makeup

 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/ruthemouldenmua

 

Bye for now,

 

Ruth x

Zombie Tramp: SFX demonstration

A few weeks ago I held a few demonstrations for Blackburn College, inviting my media makeup artist, beauty therapist and hairdressers to come and watch a little demonstration of what I do. It’s a chance for other students from other courses to get a taster of being a media makeup artist and it proved to be a successful week.

I held demonstrations for fashion and photographic using my headdress, see blog below and I also held a SFX demonstration which was specifically aimed at my level 2 media makeup students as a taster into what Level 3 students do. As everybody know SFX is my favourite area of media makeup and its eventually what I would like to go into full time; dream job would be working for an effects studio making monsters and creatures all day! So this session, I have to admit was one of my favour demonstrations of the week.

My theme was zombie tramps, last year I did zombies vs. tramps and this year its all about the evolution! Plus part of the unit in level3 is to create a believable tramp character so this demonstration just introduces them to some basic application techniques e.g. ageing, false hair applications, scraps, cuts etc.

I sculpted and casted the prosthetic piece and tried to challenge myself with creating a realistic skull. I’ll admit it does need some work on the shading and shaping of the bone structure but overall I didn’t think I did that badly. Once again the prosthetic piece was made from gelatine as I am still saving up for the prosthetics course which teach the foam latex and silicone prosthetics…..

The fabulous Leah was a fantastic model for me today and to keep the session interactive I let students come up and help me apply the makeup.

 

 

A lot of the products used were my favourite, used in previous looks such as Blood Mary’s Spray Blood, I still make a mess when applying this but it gives the most brilliant, realistic blood splatter, plus its quick and easy! The main colours of the piece were using Grimas casualty palette L which contains all the cream colours needed to colour a piece like this, I am saving up at the moment for the Skin Illustrator palette but am thinking that I’ll pick this up at one of the Make Up conventions this year and do a review on it for you guys.

I feel like the application was pretty successful in the time I had to apply it and I think the concept could do will a polish but it worked for the demonstration plus the students seemed to enjoy the session. Leah had great fun afterwards scaring passers-by in the beauty salons which was fairly amusing!

I do love my zombies, this was one was a little too clean, needed some darker colours I think.

Let me know what you think?

Don’t forget to check out my other social sites;

https://www.facebook.com/Ruth.E.Moulden.MUA

http://ruthmua.tumblr.com/

https://twitter.com/RM_Makeup

 Next blog will be a makeup review with some looks…am feeling creative!